“Heh. I have never seen an apple so tainted with darkness. It is no longer fit to be called a plant.”
Maybe this apple had lost something important…
The juice, by the way, was one hundred percent fruit juice, and it was delicious. Falfa and Shalsha were also impressed by its quality.
“Oh! Even better than freshly squeezed—the fruit itself has become juice. ’Tis simply delicious.”
The palate cleansing was a success.
After that, we rested at the table in Nosonia’s expo space for a little bit.
“This juice is so good~ This is it! This is exactly what I’d been looking for~”
“I suspect her juice is the reason that she has been placed so far back in the hall. People will reach her just as they grow thirsty.”
Huh, so they actually thought about stuff like that.
It was around then that my attention drifted toward the neighboring booth.
I felt a presence—specifically, a lot of movement. When I looked, I saw the apple tree branches shaking rapidly.
“Uh… What’s happening over there?”
I was curious, so I headed over to check it out.
When I arrived, I found Fighsly facing off against the apple tree.
“Yah! Hah! Hiyah!”
As one of the apple tree’s branches flew toward her, she dodged by tilting her head to the side.
When I took a closer look, I saw that the tree’s fruit was a dark black and appeared to be made of iron.
“Honored guests! All you need is one of these in your yard, and you can train all by yourself to your heart’s content!”
“Yet another bizarre ‘improvement,’ I see.”
“This tree was grown with a strong stubborn streak. It won’t give up its apples no matter what! It will attack anyone who approaches with its weapon-like fruit!”
“That is definitely not what I want out of an apple tree.”
Fighsly heard my comment and turned to look at me.
“Oh, Azusa. What do you think? If any of the training gyms in the human lands want a tree like this, I will send one over.”
“I don’t know anyone in training gyms, so I couldn’t say what they want. And don’t you need to pay atten—?”
I stopped mid-sentence. One of the heavy-looking apples had hit Fighsly square in the face!
“Bwuh!”
She’d taken one heck of a hit, and she promptly fell to the ground.
“Wh-what a good punch… I think I have a concussion…”
“See? I told you!”
Several slimes hopped over to Fighsly. These had to be her pets, Free Tuition (yes, that was what she called them).
“Azusa, the apples at the neighboring booth are not for eating— Oh, ’tis Fighsly. Look how out of it she is,” Beelzebub said matter-of-factly.
She did not seem particularly surprised that the apple tree was on the attack.
“I think this is the first time in a long while that I’ve genuinely thought about how scary you demons are. If these are bad jokes, I’m not laughing.”
Beelzebub stared hard at me. “I do not quite understand what you mean, but I get the feeling you’re being rude.”
Afterward, Beelzebub continued to show us around, and we visited all sorts of booths. As always, she was very nice to the girls.
Laika and Flatorte drank a great deal of juice at Nosonia’s, and Rosalie came over to tell me that Halkara was about to reach the most exciting part of her business talks regarding the apple vinegar. It seemed such discussions really did take a lot of time.
And as for me—well, I made a surprising discovery completely unrelated to apples.
All kinds of demons came over to Beelzebub to say hello—
“Minister, it is nice to see you visiting.” “Minister, we have harvested incredible sleeping apples thanks to you.” “Minister, thank you for all your hard work at last month’s meeting.”
—and she handled each greeting with ease.
“Seems like you’re doing a good job as minister.”
“Why do you look as though you’ve reevaluated your opinion of me? I am the minister—why would I not be doing my work…?”
I tended to see her most often when she wasn’t acting very much like a minister… She usually came to the house in the highlands on her days off, of course, so it made sense that she wasn’t acting like an official.
“You’re so impressive, Miss Beelzebub~!”
“You have opened Shalsha’s eyes.”
“You’re not half bad.”
The girls joined me, their eyes shining with respect. Beelzebub shot us back a lazy grin, which was considerably less dignified than before.
“See? See? I always do my best for you girls~”
“As the demon minister of agriculture, it might be better if you said you were working for the sake of demonkind instead… It’d be a real faux pas if you said you were doing it all for them in a public address…”
Of course, it was probably because Beelzebub spent most of her time chipping away at more boring work that they could hold events like this one.
I didn’t know Beelzebub’s full story as a bureaucrat, but she’d probably risen steadily through the ranks.
Then there came a flurry of footsteps.
“Boss, Boss! Phew, I’m so glad I found you!”
Vania jogged over to us. Her main job was as Beelzebub’s secretary, so she probably had something to tell her in that capacity.
“What? The event should be running smoothly even without my constant management. Or do I have an emergency meeting—do you want me to return to the ministry immediately?”
Vania waved her hand.
“No, it’s nothing like that. Though depending on how you look at it, it might be even worse. Oh, Miss Azusa’s here! It’s nice to see you. Are you tired of apples yet?”
“Oh, hi. Don’t mind me. Go ahead and tell Beelzebub what the trouble is.”
Her greeting was rather chipper, so I had a feeling the situation wasn’t too dire.
“What happened, Vania? Spit it out.”
Beelzebub didn’t seem very tense, either. I could see she was confident that she had squared away all her work before coming here.
“Well, um… Two particular people have found their way into the event.”
“Stop being so dramatic. Who are they? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
If it was two people, it probably wasn’t Pecora.
“You know, those two. You know who I mean—your natural enemies.”
“Yes, but who? I got rid of my political rivals years ago, and I doubt any of them would join forces to ambush me.”
Vania dropped her voice slightly and said:
“…Your parents are here.”
* * *
Beelzebub’s face instantly went pale.
I had definitely heard the word parents. I had high stats in everything, so I could hear the quietest whisper loud and clear.
“Secure them immediately and lock them in the meeting room. I can think of no greater nuisance than running into them while making my rounds…”
“But they aren’t exhibiting—I have no idea where in the hall they might be… Though I have received word from a ministry staffer who saw someone wearing an awfully wide-brimmed hat, so I believe they are indeed here…”
“No one else would wear clothes so obviously from the countryside… Unfortunately, you may be right…”
This had me genuinely curious. I dropped my own volume a bit so the girls wouldn’t hear me.
“What? Your parents are here, Beelzebub? I want to meet them! You have been a help to me and the family, in one way or another, so I want to thank them. And you’ve bought my daughters so many gifts.”
“For once, I would rather you act a little less like an adult! I shan’t let you see them!”
“Do they speak all properly like you do? I’m so curious about them. Are they, you know, like, nobility?”
“Inquire no further! I have nothing to say to you! Do not stick your nose in another family’s business! Furthermore, I believe I told you that I come from a common background! It was when you visited my manor.”
“Oh yeah, now that you mention it…”
I’d been so fooled by her pompous way of speaking that I’d totally forgotten…
At any rate, the way she kept turning me down made it clear she was serious—she really didn’t want me to see them.
She scratched idly at her cheek—she seemed to be thinking hard about what to do. Then, as though she had no other choice, she grabbed Vania’s arm and turned to look at my daughters.
“I apologize, girls, but I have business I must attend to. Vania will be your guide from here on… If you need anything, just let her know, and she will do it for you.”
Beelzebub was voluntarily cutting down on her time with the girls. This had to be a pretty big deal…
“If I hear that Vania was unable to guide you to your liking, then I shall deal with her when we return to work.”
“Boss! Don’t you think that’s an abuse of power?”
I wanted to think Beelzebub was joking, but I had a feeling she was dead serious…
The girls all responded, believing some issue had come up with Beelzebub’s job.
“I see. Work must be busy. Perhaps the apples have staged a revolt.”
“Thank you, Miss Beelzebub~!”
“This has been very informative. I would like to thank you for serving as our guide.”
Vania had been very quiet when she was speaking about Beelzebub’s parents, so the girls had no idea what was really going on.
I wasn’t sure what to do, but it seemed like this might be my only chance to meet Beelzebub’s parents, so I decided to follow her.
Her reaction was immediate. She whirled around to face me and said, “You cannot come! Absolutely not!”
“Wow, this is a bigger deal than I thought… If things are really that complicated with your family, I’ll stay put. I wanted to at least say hi, but…”
“Wait. I am not hiding a dark past. My childhood was normal, and we do not fight. I simply do not want you to see them… And I do not like you getting suspicious for no reason…”
“Oh, okay… Well, some parent-child relationships seem normal and problem-free from the outside but are very complicated for those involved.”
Apparently, that was something humans, demons, elves, and dwarves all had in common.
“Indeed,” she said. “You take care of the girls, and I shall—”
Just then, we spotted a very large straw hat moving toward us.
It was huge, which made it stand out. There was no way I could miss it.
“Hey, Beelzebub? Does that hat belong to one of your parents?”
Beelzebub whirled around—
—and immediately spun back toward me.
She was even paler than before.
Older games would sometimes distinguish the difficulty of enemy characters by giving them different color palettes at the beginning, middle, and end of the game—Beelzebub’s face had gone so white that she looked like a higher-level version of herself.
“Oh! Beelzebub! How’re ya doin’?!”
Two demons were approaching us—a man and a woman, both vaguely resembling Beelzebub. They appeared to be a married couple.
What’s more, they looked like they had come straight from the countryside. Though I suppose it wouldn’t be all that far-fetched for a couple of apple farmers to be visiting the expo.
Beelzebub was staring blankly into the distance.
I had never seen her make such an expression.
“Y-you have the wrong person… I am not Beelzebub…,” she said, trying to brush them off and make her escape.
“I think I know mah own daughter’s face. We been talkin’ ’bout puttin’ some of them weird apples in the store. I know, Beelzebub! Show us some good’uns!”
The male demon had started speaking to her, and I was certain he’d used the word daughter.
“Beelzebub, whena-hanna, haddem abbouta to!”
Now the woman was speaking…but I wasn’t sure what she was saying. Was that some kind of regional dialect…?
Beelzebub buried her face in her hands as the man turned to look at me.
“Ohh, you our daughter’s little friend? You don’ look demon. Are ya some kinda bigshot from the human lands?”
The woman turned to look at me, too.
“Beelzebub’m deffa, tellum yar!”
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying… I’m Azusa, Witch of the Highlands… Beelzebub’s friend.”
I wasn’t entirely sure how I was supposed to introduce myself, so I tried to play it safe.
“Gaaaaaaaah!”
Beelzebub screamed. I didn’t think that was a noise the minister of agriculture should be making.
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